Abstract [en]

Today Swedish estate agents are organized in two different trade associations, Mäklarsamfundet and Fastighetsmäklarförbundet. The trade associations offer their members equivalent services, like economic and juridical counselling, liability insurance, courses and authorization. For a long time, it has been discussed whether there should be a unification of the trade associations or not. The object of this paper is to look into why estate agents choose to join a trade association and also what view the trade associations have of a unification. To be able to reach the object, we conducted qualitative interviews with estate agents, persons in leading positions in the trade associations and the persons in leading positions in the two biggest estate agent-companies in Sweden. The theories that were used dealt with organizations, power, public influences and services. The result of our investigation showed that the estate agents that we interviewed never really had thought about why they had joined a trade association or which of the associations they should join. The reason why they were members in the trade association of their choice was either because of the influence by their colleagues or because of a demand from the company, in combination with an easy way to sign their liability insurance. The trade associations show a much deeper commitment to these matters. Mäklarsamfundet has strongly shown that they want a unification of the trade associations in order to give estate agents a better position on the market and to give the public a better picture of the competence of the estate agents. They believe that it should be easier to have an influence on public opinions if there is only one big trade association. Fastighetsmäklarförbundet wishes to keep the divided associations; they believe there is a risk if there is no competition between the trade associations, a competition that maintains their engagement to create the best services and security for their members. Fastighetsmäklarförbundet also believes that there is a big risk with a unification in when it comes to cartelization, which they think that the estate agent line of business is blackened by.